“It’s a great feeling to know people still care about me and my work, frankly,” Lee said. “It’s exciting and I like the fact that at my age I can still mingle with these people and they still relate to me and I relate to them. It’s very satisfactory.”

Kane Hodder talks about his role as Jason Vorhees in the popular horror film franchise Friday the 13th during the Wizard World Comic Con at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines on Saturday, May 20, 2017. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Cosplayers hear a presentation on makeup and special effects from SuperKayce during the Wizard World Comic Con at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines on Saturday, May 20, 2017. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Cosplayer SuperKayce gives a presentation about makeup and special effects during the Wizard World Comic Con at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines on Saturday, May 20, 2017. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

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Ahead of his appearance Friday and Saturday at Wizard World, the Register called Lee to chat about Iowa, why comics are still relevant and what he does when he gets writer’s block. Check out our edited conversation below.

Do you have any connections to Iowa? Have you been here before?

I must have been. I have been so many places that I can’t remember them all, but I am sure I wouldn’t have not been to Iowa.

The one character of yours that I know is from Iowa is master archer Hawkeye. Any particular reason you chose to make him from Iowa?

It seemed to me that people in Iowa have good eyesight. (Laughs.) No, it was just we needed some place for him to be from and Iowa came to mind.

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The biggest name in the comic-book world is gone. Marvel co-founder Stan Lee died Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, a family attorney confirmed to the Associated Press and Variety. Lee, who was 95, had suffered medical setbacks earlier in the year. Click forward to revisit his life and career. MICHAEL BUCKNER/GETTY IMAGES FOR SAMSUNG

Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City on Dec. 28, 1922. With artist Jack Kirby, he created the Fantastic Four superhero team in 1961, as well as Spider-Man, Hulk, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange and a host more heroes. He also created his own company, POW! Entertainment. REED SAXON/AP

Lee starred in and was executive producer of the animated movie "Stan Lee's Mighty 7." Lee often made cameo appearances in popular television shows and film. He even had his own Hasbro action figure. Hub Network

Of course he was at Comic-Con! Lee, with Jace Hall, greeted the crowd at the start of the Stan Lee's World of Heroes panel on the first day of Comic-Con in San Diego in 2012.From the 1970s (when he became publisher) until the ’90s, Lee was the face of Marvel and a frequent staple at comic and pop-culture conventions. DENIS POROY/INVISION/AP

The legendary comics creator took time to look over a drawing by Savannah College of Art and Design sequential art student Jen Hickman while visiting the college in 2012. Lee dropped in on the school after being honored at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. STEPHERN MORTON/AP

Lee got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. When fans asked, Lee would say that Spider-Man was his favorite heroic creation, mainly because of his Everyman nature. "You feel you know him. He's not just a cardboard figure with a lot of muscles," said Lee. CHRIS PIZZELLO/AP

President George W. Bush presented the 2008 National Medal of Arts to Lee on Nov. 17, 2008, in the East Room of the White House. POW! CEO Shane Duffy summed up Lee's impact the day he died, calling him "the father of pop culture." GERALD HERBERT/AP

Stan Lee recorded voice-over tracks for BET's animated "Black Panther" TV series in 2008 at Titmouse Studios in Hollywood. The comics master had a cameo in nearly every Marvel movie, beginning with Bryan Singer's "X-Men" in 2000. MICHAEL BURR/BET

Spider-Man looked on at Christie's East auction house in New York, Nov. 18, 1995, as his creator, Stan Lee, autographed a photo for 12-year-old Peter Mannarino and his father, Joe, of Ridgewood, N.J. The normally staid Christie's was awash in superhero memorabilia, from Spider-Man to the Incredible Hulk, as vintage Marvel characters - in the form of production cels, comic book covers, original strips and even circa-1960s T-shirts - went on the block to eager fans. MONIKA GRAFF/AP

Lee, left, publisher and editor of Marvel Comics, and his art director, John Romita, on March 5, 1975. At that time, the company published about 85 different comic books, most of them monthly, most of them featuring superheroes, most written in college-level vocabulary. AP

Why are almost all of the comic book characters you wrote from cities, not rural or Midwestern areas?

Mostly because we want the reader to associate with it and if you pick a city the reader hasn’t heard of, it won’t mean as much. That’s why we pick big metropolises, like Des Moines, for example.

Many of your characters reflected and responded to the time they were in. Do you think comics are continuing to do that?

Absolutely. I think anything you write for the public should have some essence of what is going on in the world at the time. You can’t make these comic strip characters live in their own universe and not be affected by what’s happening in reality. I was always thinking about how I would connect characters to the time in which they were published. Well, actually, it wasn't even something that I thought about separately, really. It just came to me naturally. You cannot not think about it if you are telling stories correctly.

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Emerson Seth, 14, of Carlisle, left, and Brooke Holland, 16, of Des Moines take a break out of costume during the Wizard World Comic Con, held at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines on Friday, May 13, 2016.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

What was your process for thinking of new characters?

I would just sit down and think and hope I came up with something. There is no trick to it. Thinking of things is the easiest thing you can do. It’s a lot easier than working, frankly.

I used to do a new story a week. Now I talk story to people and edit stories. Occasionally I come up with a new idea and I will probably ask someone else to write it because I don’t have the time.

What did you do when you got writer’s block?

I’ve never had writer’s block. The only problem I ever ran into is not having enough time to write. I was also the editor at the company and I was editing all the scripts, so in order to write a new one, I had to find the time to do that and that was my biggest problem.

The original Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, right, and Marvel Comics creator of "The Hulk," Stan Lee on June 17, 2003, in Universal City, Calif.(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

What character has not been featured in the films or the TV shows that you would want to see featured?

I think I would like to see more of the Silver Surfer and I’d like to see more of The Fantastic Four. I like the Silver Surfer for all the philosophizing he does and I like The Fantastic Four because I like the byplay among all the characters.

Do you have a favorite cameo in all of the films that you have done?

Sure. The one in “Age of Ultron,” the second “Avengers” movie. What happened there was Thor was having a drink of some heavy brew from Asgard and I said I would like a taste of it and he said, “Oh, no, it’s too strong for a human,” and I said, “Don’t be silly, I can drink it,” so he gave me a sip. In the next scene, they are carrying me out.

And the reason that’s my favorite cameo was it was two scenes. All the others were only one scene, but here I had two scenes. I was practically the star of the movie.

What happens when you go on set?

All the stars like me because I don’t threaten them. I don’t play any leading parts where I might take away their role. I am no competition for them, so I am very popular.

Why do you think comic books and comic characters went from a niche interest to arguably the most dominate purveyor of pop culture?

Anything that gives people pleasure is important and I think reading these stories pleases people and the fact that they are done in comic strip or comic book form means you get the story and you get the drawings. It is almost like watching a movie that doesn’t move. The characters don’t move, but aside from that you are watching a little miniature movie and as long as we keep the stories interesting and surprising and exciting I think people will love them.

Stan Lee(Photo: Trae Patton)

Who was the most outlandish person who told you he or she was a fan of your work?

The guys of Kiss said they were big fans. Mostly pop stars and rock stars have been the most outlandish.

Are you ever going to stop doing conventions?

Retire is a dirty word.

So you are not going to retire soon, I take it?

No. And you know why?

Why?

Greed! No, but when people retire the first thing they do is travel the world and go play golf. I travel the world to go see the fans and I figure somebody would be torturing me if they said I had to be on a golf course for four hours hitting a little ball from hole to hole.

Why would I retire from this? I wrote a couple of stories that came from my heart and I am still talking about them. As long as Marvel is around, I will always be around.

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Jeremy Lester, 36, of Des Moines, Rochelle Lester, 27, of Des Moines and Frederic Perras, 27, of Ames show off their costumes at the Wizard World Comic Con 2016 at the Iowa Events Center on May 14, 2016.(Photo: Meenakshi Chelsea Van Zee/For the Register)